1. Field of the Invention
In general, the present invention relates to the art of electrical connectors. Specifically, the present invention provides an electrical connector configured by unit sections that are interconnected with each other by interlocking devices.
2. Background of the Invention
Generally, a conventional connector to which the present invention is related is interposed between a first and a second electronic parts or components having contact pads, respectively, to achieve electrical connection between the first and the second electronic components. In the following description, the first and the second electronic parts or components are a printed circuit board and a Large Scale Integrated circuit (LSI), respectively. The connector comprises an insulator provided with a plurality of contact receptacle holes penetrating the insulator in a thickness direction, and a plurality of elastic contacts and inserted into and held in the contact receptacle holes, respectively.
However, in the conventional electrical connectors, housings are usually molded by an injected art.
As a result, when the connector is formed, contacts are inserted in passageways defined on the housing of the electrical connector. In addition, when an industry trend is to obtain highest quantity of contacts on the electrical connector, the housing of the electrical connector needs receive more terminals therein for getting a better electrical connection and transmitting more signals, so much passageways are formed on the housing, correspondingly that leads the housing difficultly to mold, such as insulative material can not fill fully of moulds.
Heretofore, various electrical connectors have been developed for interconnecting IC package to the Printed Circuit Board (PCB). However, previous attempts in forming higher density electrical connector met much difficulties resulted from uneven distribution of material flow and shrinkages, problems that were magnified as the housing/array of the contacts became larger.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,679,707 issued to Brodsky on Jan. 20, 2004 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,881,073 issued to Glen Ellyn both disclose a modular electrical connector formed from several smaller sections, each including interconnecting edges for joining with another the sections together. Configuring the electrical connector by interconnecting the smaller sections together, the electrical connector having maximum quantity of contacts can be easily provided. The electrical connector disclosed by Brodsky or Glen Ellyn is a good concept but not a most suitable way. Moreover, the electrical connector also needs a frame for fixing the sections to be a unitary structure, thus it is more complicated to manufacture the electrical connector.
In view of the above, it is strongly desired to provide an improved electrical connector to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantage.